The scarlet enemy
by Trips to Neverland
Summary: What happens when Vermouth fall in love with her own silver bullet? What happens when Akai fall in love with his enemy? … is it really love? or just a part of an act...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, so the other day as I was rewatching _Head-to-Head Match with the BO,_ I had this weird idea of making a pairing out of Vermouth and Shuichi. Shu was obviously impressed by her on that episode, so what the heck, here's a fanfiction about that.**

 **Now the development of their relationship took me some time, seeing that they're enemies, dah! And they don't trust each other, but I'll make it work, I promise :p**

 **but hold on, is it really love? or just a part of an act?**

 **Anyhoo, here's the prologue, hope you enjoy.**

* * *

He walked between the shelves casually pretending to look for some ingredients as his eyes kept peeking at the man in black who's been following him ever since he left the Kudos residence. Pretending he hadn't noticed him, Subaru paid for what he bought before leaving the store, he took a look around and there was the famous black Porsche parked across the street, he moved his eyes from it quickly and casually walked to his car, he started the engine and as he drove, it was confirmed that Gin was after him, the black Porsche kept riding right behind him openly.

This wasn't good, Gin was always the one responsible for assassinations so having him following you cannot lead to a good thing.

Subaru didn't want to lead them back to the Kudos residence, instead, he started driving fast and dodging through cars as he called James black informing him about what's happening. Could it be they found out about him? Or what else could it be! But how? How?

Once finished with the call, Subaru did what a normal person would do, he pulled over in a traffic-filled road followed by the Porsche that stopped right behind him, he stepped out of his car and walked to the car behind him, the tinted Porsche window opened slowly exposing Vodka.

"Is there something?" Subaru asked, creating an innocent look on his face "I noticed you've been following me"

The next thing he knew was his eyes slamming shut from intense burning, Vodka pepper-sprayed him and dragged him to the back seat placing something on his nose that soon enough sent him to sleep.

* * *

"Hold on!" Shuichi heard a voice say as he emerged back to consciousness "let me do this"

He finally opened his eyes only to find his body tied on the ground inside some abandoned warehouse, with his Subaru mask thrown next to him and Vodka pointing a gun at his head.

"Aniki" Vodka said lowering his gun as Gin approached raising his.

"Oh, you're awake, that's even better, now you can witness your own death" Gin said before putting on his usual victory smile, he pulled the trigger and started sending bullets inside Shuichi who laid on the ground helplessly, screaming from the first bullet but taking the rest with no sound but painting.

In that frozen second between life and death, his mind traveled to another place, he thought about his family and friends, Akemi and Jodie, even her parents crossed his mind, he found time to think about his entire life and what he made wrong and what he failed to accomplish, except that now, everything passed through his mind as a part of a movie, he didn't judge himself, he didn't feel anything, no anger, no guilt as he usually does, just nothing.

The popping of the bullets finally stopped and got replaced by clicks of an emptied gun.

"The cat with seven souls is finally dead" Gin smirked as he looked down at the corpse of Shuichi.

"You didn't shoot his head" Vodka pointed out knowing how Gin always finishes his victims with a shot to the head.

"The last time he got shot in the head he survived, I consider it bad luck" he turned to look at Vodka as he went on "besides, it would've shortened his suffering"

"Now that's an ugly scene" Vermouth said as she entered the warehouse causing Gin to turn and look at her.

"Well, too bad you're gonna have to clean it"

"Why am I the one to…"

"Because anokata said so, I'm going to meet him now so I can't be late. just burn the corpse and clean the blood"

The two men left the warehouse, Vermouth waited for them to leave as she scrolled through her phone. After years of working to the organization, a corpse was as casual as a sleeping person to her. Once they went out the door, she turned to look at the corpse and the lake of blood underneath it, she let out a long sigh before rolling her sleeves up.

* * *

Green eyes opened slowly, Shuichi's face looked so pale that even the dark circles underneath his eyes lost their color, his lips were white and chopped and he looked as if he'd lost ten pounds as he laid on a Queen size bed.

Turning his head to the right, he saw a beautiful view of Tokyo from a big window that covered the whole wall, so he's in a high rise apartment. Sophisticated, intimate and luxurious would be the least to describe the bedroom he was in, everything inside it was deluxe except for the IV stand near the bed where a bag of saline was hooked not fitting the rest of the furniture.

He looked at it following the track of the tube that came out of it to wind up penetrating his skin, his skin that had multiple blue stains on it, probably due to the insertion and removing of IV cannulas several times.

Slowly, he tried to get up when a sharp pain lanced through his body and spots flashed in front of his eyes, he felt searing bursts radiating from the wounds to reach his entire body, he winced in pain as he found himself groaning to keep himself from screaming.

He was supposed to be dead! The last thing he remembered was Gin pointing and shooting at him, now he's in a strange place, his muscles betraying him with a sudden weakness, he's in pain, he's breathing heavily, it was just too much for Shuichi to process, he was freaking out and what he saw next only helped to intensify that feeling.

Vermouth showed up from the door examining him with a confident gaze as Shuichi, who's usually calm and stoic sent her a look that translated what he honestly felt.

"Welcome to hell" the blonde smiled as she continued to approach him confidently "you died Akai Shuichi, but turns out you weren't as good of a person as you made us believe, you were sent to hell and I'm here with you as a part of your punishment"

Shuichi kept looking at her with the same look as he reached for the tube to get it out of his hand, the blonde moved her hand quickly resting it on his wrist and preventing him from continuing "calm down, you actually believed that!"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Where is this place?" Shuichi asked with his hands reaching for the tube again.

"Look, I understand you're shocked but taking this off would be a bad idea" she poured him a cup of water from a bottle on the nightstand as she went on calmly "you were shot all over your shoulder and chest and abdomen, you've been in a coma since then and now… well, here you are"

"Where is this place?" he asked after a while trying to organize his thoughts.

"Oh, I would love to tell you, but then, I'd have to kill you" she said lowering her voice while looking down at her hands before turning her heels and aiming to the door.

"Wait!" Shuichi said. Vermouth stopped and waited for him to finish talking without looking back at him "why am I here?"

The blonde took in a deep breath before she retrieved walking, she left the room leaving Shuichi alone for the rest of the day with nothing he can do but to think, he couldn't make any move without having pain shooting through every part of the little holes inside his body. Time passed so slowly in the broad bedroom as he watched the sun go down and behind the high building, darkness enveloped Tokyo as he laid there watching and thinking.

The clock read 11 pm when Vermouth showed up again from the door holding a bag of saline in her hand, the room was dark and the only light it received was from the large window and the city lights outside.

She turned on the lights and approached the bed and started changing the empty bag with the new one, with the green eyes following her

"How long have I been here?"

"Eight days, you've been in a coma, it was a miracle that you survived"

"Why are you doing this Vermouth?" he asked without getting a response, and so he went on "why did you save me?"

"I didn't say I saved you"

"Gin wanted me dead, which means that anokata wanted the same, I know Gin wouldn't disobey him, same goes for Vodka but you… anyway, If you need some information from me then know that I'm not going to say anything"

"It's not like you have any information," she said as she hanged the new saline bag on the hook right after connecting it to the tube "I already know everything you know"

"Then why did you save me?"

"What's done is done, don't make me regret it" she snapped finally moving her eyes from the bag to meet his "it can be reversed you know"

Vermouth left the room again, leaving Shuichi to spend a long night sleepless before surrendering to the irresistible feeling near the morning, or collapsing to be more precise, and who would blame him for not being able to sleep as he laid in a room with one of the high ranking members of a universal criminal organization in the room next to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**There's going to be one curse, so I apologize in advance.**

* * *

The sunlight broke through the large windows of the living room to land right on Vermouth's lids, she opened her eyes before she sat down, she didn't get much sleep the last night, the couch wasn't comfortable and her thoughts were further tenser.

She poured herself a large cup of wine, not a typical way to start a morning but having an FBI agent inside her bedroom wasn't a typical way to start a morning either. Vermouth sat at the kitchen counter drinking with her blue eyes drifting to one of the drawers where a gun was hidden.

She thought about the day she was called by Gin to clean the mess, how she found the corpse of Shuichi on the ground penetrated by five bullets, how she rolled her sleeves and kneeled down to take one last look before getting rid of it, how unfittingly soft his features looked compared to the situation, how his messy black hair covered his forehead, she reached to move it away and felt how warm his skin was, she cupped his cheek slipping one finger under his nose, feeling a weak warm breath coming out, the next thing she knew was her driving recklessly through the traffic to get him to the hospital before sneaking him out of it using a nurse disguise right after having the bullets extracted out of him.

She finished her wine and headed to the bedroom where the agent was found asleep. Vermouth changed the emptied saline bag with a new one. Shuichi kept faking sleep to avoid talking to her, his thoughts were still hazy not making it a good time to confront Vermouth.

It was an hour later when she came back into his room with a bunch of bandages in her hand and found him awake.

"I'm going to redress your wounds. Rule number one, don't talk to me" she assertively delivered.

Shuichi's eyes followed the blonde as she walked across the room, she moved the comforter down to his legs uncovering his shirtless body underneath, he looked svelte due to the weight he'd lost the past week, yet he still maintained his muscular shape. His chest was chiseled and a fading six-pack still popped up his abdomen, no one knew what was going on in Vermouth's mind, but something was for sure, is that she liked what she was seeing.

She took off the dressings that covered the five bullets wounds before pouring a disinfectant on them, it felt like if his skin was on fire, nevertheless, Shuichi didn't make a sound, she then started cleaning them by rubbing them with a compress, it was then that he groaned.

"Oh, did I hurt you?"

"Its okay, I'm fine"

Vermouth finished cleaning the wound through his groans, once done, she looked at him one last time as she wondered why he didn't ask her any questions, sure she made the rule clear but he wasn't the type to obey, at least that's what she believed. She left the room without him saying a word. _So he doesn't like talking much, that'll make things easier,_ she thought.

That day, Shuichi heard her closing the door and leaving at 10 am before hearing her opening it again at 2 am, and it didn't take long for her to show up at his room with yet another saline bag.

"I didn't know you have nurse skills!" he said, finally opening a conversation.

"Let's say I'm multitalented" Vermouth smirked, proceeding to change the empty bag with the full one.

"It's a nice place you have"

"What made you think this is my place?" she suddenly lashed out with the smirk turning into an irritated look.

"I believe it is, or where else would you take a supposedly dead FBI agent"

"Well, it isn't. Just stop that"

"What?"

"Talking, stop talking, I already told you about the rule, don't talk to me!"

* * *

Four days have passed, during which, none of the two enemies tried talking to the other.

Vermouth would show up every day to check on Shuichi, she'd change his saline bags and redress his wounds, she'd also leave the house to get back home after midnight every day, it was a new habit she acquired, she'd go shopping, bring home her belongings then head to the five star bar where she drinks everything off.

Having Shuichi at her place was a huge weight on her chest, it took the majority of her daily thinking, why did she do it? why can't she undo it? what happens next? What if her colleagues find out? What if he gets healthy? He sure won't let her go.

It was almost the same for Shuichi as he got nothing to do but to lay on the bed and think, he didn't trust her, not even a bit. And not that he was scared of death, but being constantly on the verge of it, especially that he's just been through a near-death experience was nerve-wracking for him. And living with an enemy without having any friend around, not even any person, not even a book or a tv was driving him crazy.

It was the night of that fourth day when Vermouth got back home at 3 in the morning, she took her usual turn to the bedroom to change the saline bag when his green eyes caught her.

"Why are you doing this Vermouth?" he asked with a determined expression on his face.

"Enough talking-…"

"Why?" Shuichi interrupted with a louder tone.

"You know the rule"

"I don't care about the fuking rule, Are you supposed to be helping me with this or what?"

"I warned you not to make me regret it, so just stop-…"

"What if I want you to regret it? Do you think this is a good way to live? Maybe if I died it would've been better"

"Oh yeah! There's no problem… I can just grab my gun and make your wish come true"

"Go ahead then"

She stood there looking at him for a second before rushing to the kitchen drawer where was her gun. Vermouth stood there with her gun pointed to Shuichi's head who looked at her fearlessly, she's never had a difficulty killing until he showed up, she doesn't know what drove her to save him knowing all the negative results it would bring on her, but she did it anyway. She thought that maybe having him expressing his will to die would make killing him easier, but instead, she found herself frozen, unable to pull the trigger.

"Why did you save me, Vermouth?" he gently asked, interrupting her internal train of thoughts.

"Is it that important for you to know?"

"…It's my death wish"

"If so…" Vermouth smiled weakly "its because I was being stupid, and now is the time to put an end to that" she stood there, trying to pull the trigger only to fail again as if his eyes where an invisible shield.

"Not that" Shuichi shook his head as he went on with a calm tone "what drove you to do it?"

The blonde looked at him for a second before answering "There was no reason, I just did, and now I'm doing what should be done"

"Then before I go, I just want to tell you that you're not who you pretend to be Vermouth, you're a good person from inside, I can see it, I think that's what drove you to save me" Shuichi continued despite her laughs interrupting him "go ahead and kill me now, but just know that what you and your pals are doing needs to stop, it will stop one day, you've hurt enough people"

"Oh please, a good person eh! Well sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a good person, big surprise" she smirked right after her loud laughs ended, Vermouth held her gun as silence enveloped the room, Shuichi looked her back without saying a word waiting for his fate fearlessly despite the racing heartbeats he felt.

She lowered her gun slowly "I don't want my bed to be stained with your blood, I'll just kill you in the warehouse where you were meant to die" she said, eyes drifting to the watch on the nightstand "I'm going to sleep now, we'll do it another day"


End file.
